[PDF] For Rick Haldenby by Philip Beesley; Robert Jan van Pelt in Arts-Photography

Description

From early silent features like The Lodger and Easy Virtue to his final film; Family Plot; in 1976; most of Alfred Hitchcockrsquo;s movies were adapted from plays; novels; and short stories. Hitchcock always took care to collaborate with those who would not just execute his vision but shape it; and many of the screenwriters he enlistedmdash;including Eliot Stannard; Charles Bennett; John Michael Hayes; and Ernest Lehmanmdash;worked with the director more than once. And of course Hitchcockrsquo;s wife; Alma Reville; his most constant collaborator; was with him from the 1920s until his death.In Hitchcock and Adaptation: On the Page and Screen; Mark Osteen has assembled a wide-ranging collection of essays that explore how Hitchcock and his screenwriters transformed literary and theatrical source material into masterpieces of cinema. Some of these essays look at adaptations through a specific lens; such as queer aesthetics applied to Rope; Strangers on a Train; and Psycho; while others tackle the issue of Hitchcock as author; auteur; adaptor; and; for the first time; present Hitchcock as a literary source. Film adaptations discussed in this volume include The 39 Steps; Shadow of a Doubt; Lifeboat; Rear Window; Vertigo; Marnie; and Frenzy. Additional essays analyze Hitchcock-inspired works by W. G. Sebald; Don DeLillo; Bret Easton Ellis; and others.These close examinations of Alfred Hitchcock and the creative process illuminate the significance of the material he turned to for inspiration; celebrate the men and women who helped bring his artistic vision from the printed word to the screen; and explore how the director has influenced contemporary writers. A fascinating look into an underexplored aspect of the directorrsquo;s working methods; Hitchcock and Adaptation will be of interest to film scholars and fans of cinemarsquo;s most gifted auteur.